It is known to provide a protective cover in the breech block. Such protective cover generally extends, with open breech block, from the breech plate over the breech block to form a bridge, having a flexible bottom blade (see for example co-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,126). By means of such a guide blade the loading, respectively the ejection of cartridges or cartridge casings, can be achieved without malfunctioning. For example, during loading the cartridge stump will not impact against the edge of the breech block which confronts the breech plate; respectively during ejection of the cartridge stump, the latter does not impact against the confronting misaligned breech plate.
This known construction frequently malfunctions and is subject to wear because of the continuous entrainment of the deflecting blade with the breech block. Moreover, with this known blade the region between the loading chamber and the loading blade is not covered so that such an arrangement is not usable for long ammunition in which the cartridge is joined to the casing via a shaft.